Washington Post preaches Jesus in society

Will wonders never cease? The Washington Post's Thursday, Nov. 3, edition has an opinion piece titled, "Why Jesus Is Welcome in the Public Square." It's written by an unbelieving Jewish woman who talks about the benefits of a very public Christianity in Southern Louisiana, where she lived for 10 years. Here's the last couple paragraphs:

If one common mistake liberals make is assuming that the great majority of Bible-thumping (or tapping) comes from the right, a second -- and to my mind, more important -- mistake is equating this style of religiosity with something as simple as narrow-minded ignorance. Rather, bringing God and his word as expressed in the Bible into the debate points to a profound lack of meaning and vision in our public discourse, and a searing pessimism that anyone, or any institution, in public life might put things right. It points, also, to disgust: disgust not only with our elected leaders but also with the cheapening of life around us, whether by blatant sexuality on television, soaring drug abuse, the acceptance of out-of-wedlock birth or the loss of the communal ties that once grounded us.

As far as I can tell, progressives and liberals of all stripes don't even begin to fathom the despair and confusion most ordinary Americans feel when they hear the latest violent rap song or see a billboard plastered with an image of a 16-year-old clad only in Calvin Klein underwear. The right wing of the Republican Party, on the other hand, has long understood that most Americans yearn for something nobler in our national life, but it doesn't care unless it can use frustration and despair to harvest rage, and rage to harvest votes.

Did you get that? Let me state it in simpler terms: 1) Bible-believing Christians can be socially conservative and not joined at the hip with the GOP, and 2) God, not government programs, is the solution to societal problems.